


Perfect in Halves

by daifukudistress



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Characters to be added, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Zombie Apocalypse, definitely not your best guidance for zombie apocalypse survival, lowkey Jonghyun/Taemin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-07-28 08:11:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16237616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daifukudistress/pseuds/daifukudistress
Summary: Only one rule and one rule only;Never gets too comfortable.





	Perfect in Halves

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the draft for this fic somewhere around September or October last year...?  
> Yeah, this is my true writing pace, guys. I know. Very fast. Wow.
> 
> So... I hope you can enjoy this. Sorry for the lack of proper use of the English language. Excuse me and my limited size vocabulary lol

* * *

**/One/**   

* * *

 

Jonghyun opens his eyes slowly as he sleepily gazed around to his friends chattering. He turns his head slightly towards the window, seeing a vast field as they go by.  _Ah, what a nice nap._ A week of spending his time camping on the side of the lake after the hectic semester was definitely worth it. At the moment his body still feels fine, but he’ll feel all the pain in the next morning for sure. He can put the blame on his noodle limbs, as he likes to call himself, all he wants. But in the end, all of the bruises he gets it's nothing more than the work of his own clumsiness.

One of his friends slapping his thigh really hard, causing the entire van to roar in a peal of laughter. Jonghyun playfully kicks his friend thigh back, then he took his position back leaning on the window. He closes his eyes once more, enjoying the music he’s been listening to before he went asleep.

It hasn't even been a minute, he instantly peeled his eyes wide open once he's sensing something creeping up his spine. All of a sudden there's this noticeable change of the atmosphere. No one is laughing anymore. No one even dares to utter one single word.

He takes off his earphones, scanning his surrounding cautiously as the van entering his neighborhood. People rushing off in every direction, desperately tried to run away from something. Few houses already ruined by fire. Many cars scattered on the road, most of them almost burned to crisp. Jonghyun still couldn’t get the grasp of this situation.  _What the hell is going on?_

The van stopped so abruptly, bringing Jonghyun out of his daze. His friends were gone in a second. Instinctively, Jonghyun runs as fast as he can towards his house in the midst of people trying to escape the horror he cannot fully understand yet. The door to his house is wide open. He rushes around searching his entire house, shouting the name of his family members from the top of his lungs. No one answered. No one was there.

He searches around his neighborhood, only to found them lying lifeless on the street, just a couple house away from his family house. He abruptly comes closer to one of the bodies, his eldest sister. He takes her hand. He didn’t know what are his eyes trying to look for. Jonghyun muttering his sister name while he sloppily clears her face from all the dirt. He pinches her face repeatedly, hoping he would get some kind of reaction from her. _Flinch. Groan. Just, anything. Please._ Right before his mind went completely numb, a hand grab on his shoulder roughly.

“Jonghyun? What are you doing here? Go hide! Now!”

His feet guide his unresponsive mind back to his house. There's only people as far as his eyes can see. Jonghyun knew from their expression all of them were screaming so mindlessly, but somehow he couldn't hear them at all. It's like as if someone just pushes a mute button on a remote because they were really bothered by this senseless noises. All he knows right now is to get inside his house right away, just like the man he doesn't recognize says. Evidently, Jonghyun's will to survive doesn't seem to be strong enough as he kept being swept back by the panic mob. By the time he managed to get out of the crowd, he stumbled upon one of the causes of this madness. He keeps his expression as neutral as he can possibly be, trying his best to stay calm and focus. The zombie still hadn’t noticed his presence.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a dead body holding a rifle not too far away from him. Logically, he would take a moment to just observe and plan out the best move he could get in such a short amount of time. _But do I really have the time to observe anything at all? Particularly at this exact moment?_ Eventually, his eagerness to get the rifle as quickly as he can make the zombie turn its attention towards him. Jonghyun snatches the rifle, but then he caught the zombie rapid movement right on time and managed to avoid it. The zombie notice how Jonghyun is now lying on his back on the damp concrete, leaving him in such a vulnerable state. He tries to recall every single knowledge he had about how to use a rifle, which is almost nonexistent, only if it didn't count something he remembers from a lot of movies.

The zombie slouches its way towards Jonghyun. They growl with their mouth wide open, resulting them leaving traces of the foul smelling blood. Jonghyun keeping his sight back and forth, down on the rifle on his hands and upfront toward the fast approaching zombie. He takes a deep breath and as he accidentally pulls the trigger he successfully shot one down. 

He's back on his feet in a flash. Found it kind of surprising he can breathe normally again this fast. He looks to his side, at the body of the zombie he just takes down.  _Dead. It's dead._

Jonghyun brought his left palm right in front of his face. It has been shaking for as long as he can remember today, but other than that it looks normal. _It's normal to shake out of fear like this, right?_   Then he brought up his right hand. For a moment he was a bit concerned why his entire fingers firmly grasping on the barrel of the rifle like he actually seems familiar with it. _How strange_.

The sound of people screaming from distance brought him back to reality. Jonghyun immediately rushing his way towards the main street, where all of the chaos happen. For the rest of the night, the only sound he can recognize at that time is the sound of all of the sorts of weapon firing nonstop and nothing else.

 

* * *

 

Jonghyun sits on the porch of his house. Cuts and dirt covering almost his entire body. He feels like his body floats around in the air, not entirely sure what to feel as if his brain can’t even process the events that happened last night. The remaining survivors lining up bodies on the sidewalk across the road and covered them with linens or any fabric they could find. There is his family amongst those bodies,  _but why he didn't react anything to this fact?_

“They were trying to escape,” Mr. Ahn, the unrecognizable man who told Jonghyun to escape last night, approach him. “Many people trying to run for their lives. But last night, as you already know, was completely chaotic. Everything happened really fast. They were shoved. Stumped on.” He sighed heavily. “I saw what happened to your family, but by the time I get to them they’re...”

“It’s not your fault. You were already trying to protect as many people as you possibly can. Thank you, for all of your hard work,” Jonghyun said.

Mr. Ahn nods as shoved his hands to his jeans pocket. “We just checked around the neighborhood. We believe this area is zombies-free for now. But we got no power, too many wounded people, not enough clean water and food supplies. Way too many problems for us to handle. Staying here is too risky. We won't last long if we stay like this. Soon enough, we need to evacuate somewhere safe.”

“I’m not going.”

“Jonghyun, I know you just lost your family. But you can’t stay here.”

“No, I’m going to leave as well to look for my relative.”

“Relative? Aren’t the majority of your relative lives overseas?”

“He used to rent our room in the basement when he was still a student. He then moves to the big city to continue his study to become some kind of doctor or something. We were so close back then. Even though we didn’t communicate much these days, I still consider him as my brother.”

“Oh, yes. I remember him. Aron, was it?”

Jonghyun nods. “He’s the only one I have left. I need to make sure that he’s still alive with my own eyes.”

“Let’s hope so. We still don’t know how big the impact is right now. We’ll check on the radio in a moment. Alright, now let me find someone to accompany you, okay?”

“Mr. Ahn, wait. That would be unnecessary. I’m going by myself.”

“It’s dangerous, Jonghyun. The zombies are still out there. Not to mention there’s gotta be another people whose in the same state like us. We never gonna know whether they have a good intention on us or not. I know you're a good person, Jonghyun. But in this kind of situation, trusting yourself and the people around you is the wisest thing you can do now. I'm not going to stop you from leaving, but... at the very least, you shouldn’t be wandering around all by yourself. It would at least ease my heart a bit, and your family too.”

“As of now, meeting those pests would be the least of my worry,” His neighbor stares at him skeptically. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I’m capable of taking care of myself. Besides, you guys need more people to stick around here more than I do with my journey.”

Mr. Ahn only nods at him reluctantly.

“You should sleep a bit before you go. It’s already dangerous as it is now, you don’t need to decrease your chance of surviving by not having enough rest. I mean, last night... it was tough, right? I haven't seen you like that before. So I'm kind of worry you would probably feeling terribly sore by now. Also, didn't you just got back from your camping trip?” Mr. Ahn smiles.

“Sir, I assure you, I really am fine. I’d rather move around than staying still.”

Jonghyun goes back to his house to grab everything he needs. He first grabbed a few extra shirts from his closet. Then, he goes to his parent's room. He pulled out a save hidden under the bed and then taking the entire content, a handgun and a small bag of ammo. He then went back downstairs. He poured out the content of his camping backpack, sorting out the unnecessary stuff and put every new stuff in. Jonghyun looked up as someone knocked on his door.

“I see you’re almost ready to leave. Here, I know it’s not much but I hope it can help you out even just for a bit,” Mr. Ahn lay down a small bag of first aid kit and canned foods near his backpack.

“Thank you. Best of luck to all of you,” Jonghyun offered his hand. Mr. Ahn takes it firmly.

“You too, kid. Be smart and wise on your every decision. Stay safe, okay,” He pats on his back.

Jonghyun nods. “Yeah, I will.”

The older man sighed. “Tell Aron I say hi, that is if he still remembers me.”

“He will. Take care,” Jonghyun smile as he bid his neighbor goodbye.

 

* * *

 

Jonghyun loaded his stuff on the passenger seat. It’s been a while since the last time he drives the car by himself. He tapped his fingers on the boot, looking at the car with the clear hesitation look on his face.  _There’s no time to waste. I need to move right away,_ he thought as he hops onto the driver’s seat.

Slowly he starts to get the hang of it and before he realized he slowly speeding up his pace. He gave all of his focus entirely on the road. His mind seems to refuse to sink the fact that he just loses his entire family. He even wonders a bit whether that actually happened or his brain just likes to overdramatize everything he saw last night. But then again if it wasn’t real, he wouldn’t be here, all alone in the middle of the road.

Jonghyun did encounter zombies on his way, but then he noticed that they were actually slower, quite a contrast from what he saw last night. In the end, he couldn’t care any less to put a fight against them so he just ran them over. He learns a lot of things during his time on the road. What attracts them, their behavior and most importantly their weak spot.

The road has been lonely for him. The zombies didn’t even bother him anymore as he just keeps drives straight through them. He occasionally listens to the radio. It says some of the cities already evacuated even though there is no indication of zombies movement around their area. That explains why he always seems to come across a lot of empty neighborhoods. Everywhere he goes is just him basically swinging through another ghost town after another one.  _How big is this attack actually is?_

Jonghyun stops to take a rest and to clean up the mess caused by zombies blood and remainings splattered all over his car. Suddenly, he hears noises coming from the bushes behind him. He pulled his gun from its holster, carefully approaching the source. What he found there is a pale young man, sitting against a tree with his head down. Jonghyun still points the gun at him even though he still looks visually like a human. He crouches in front of the guy just close enough. The guy lifts his head slowly, muttering something.  _Water?_ Before Jonghyun could even open his mouth, the guy passed out.

His head tells him to keep moving. The guy looks like he’s about to die soon enough anyway. But instead, Jonghyun goes back to his car, then takes one of the bottles. He positions the guy flat on his back, then he splashes some water on his face. He waited out for a few minutes before the guy finally regains his consciousness. He groaned in pain as he pressing his hands on his head. Jonghyun gave him his water and a pack of chocolate bread.

“Eat. You should gather up your strength.”

“Thank you so much,” The guy said, nodding his head to Jonghyun for quite a while. “I’ve been wandering around days without food and water. It’s just my luck for you happens to not only finding me but also helping me as well. What’s your name?”

“I’m Jonghyun.”

“Hi. I’m Taemin. Oh—“ Taemin suddenly drawing his hand back. “I’m so dirty right now. I don’t think I should be touching anyone right now.”

“It’s just a handshake. I don’t mind. Unless you’re bringing some kind of virus or something then I shouldn’t be anywhere around you, and alive for that matter,” Jonghyun pulled his gun out and point it at Taemin. Seeing a shocked look on Taemin’s face made him scoffs. “Relax. I’m joking. You look fine. Just like you said, you’re only dirty.”

“I see you got a pretty sick sense of humor. Not sure if we need that in this kind of time,” Taemin muttered, annoyed. “If I was carrying a virus, then I should be dead already. I’m that one kid who always gets sick easily, you know. I bet you at least have one friend or someone you knew like that. I’m just lucky to be alive. Anyway, are you all alone?”

Jonghyun nods as he keeps his gaze to the ground.  

“Why? That’s pretty reckless— no, really, really, reckless. I can’t even begin on how to explain the situation out here. It’s really, really bad. It's like one of those apocalypse movies, but it's ten times even worse than that.”

“I could ask the same thing to you then.”

“I got separated from my family,” Taemin wiped all of the crumbles left around his mouth. “The zombies haven’t reached my city yet but we were told to evacuate in advance, but then... yeah, something happened. So, are you going somewhere? Are you evacuating?”

“Uh, yes. To the city on the west side,” Jonghyun answered quickly, a bit confused by the sudden change conversation. He keeps eyeing Taemin cleaning himself up before he takes another gulp of the water. “Well, I gotta go. Good luck, Taemin.”

“Wait, hold on! You couldn’t possibly leave me out here with nothing, could you? I know I shouldn’t ask this much since we’re strangers, but can you at least give me a ride until I can find shelter?”

Jonghyun didn’t say anything as he walks back to his car. He didn’t know why but he didn’t protest when Taemin followed him, and when he asks ‘ _Can I really come?’_  Jonghyun just sighs. His mind still telling him picking a stranger in the middle of the road isn’t a smart thing to do, especially at times like this.  _Well, he did say he would only tag along until they can find a shelter for him. It’s just for a moment. I need to be cautious but it’ll be fine, I guess._

They didn’t speak through the entire time until Jonghyun pull his car over a house on an abandoned neighborhood.

“Is this your house?”

“No. We need to find you some clothes and supplies, just to be safe. Also, you need to clean up.”

Jonghyun goes inside first to make sure the house is safe, then he ushered Taemin off to clean himself up immediately. He wanders around to make sure their activity doesn’t attract any unwanted attention. It didn’t take long for Taemin to emerged from the bathroom, all freshened up. They split up to scavenge around the house for everything they may need. Jonghyun burst opens a room and found some collection of weapon. Jonghyun lifts one of his brows at this, baffled.

“So have you ever held a firearm before? Which one you most comfortable with, a handgun or rifle?”

“I never even seen those things physically in my life until the attack start.”

“Here, you can hold on to my handgun for a little while. You need something to protect yourself,” Jonghyun shoving his own handgun to Taemin’s hand, ignoring his answer.

“Whoa, whoa, hold on. Didn’t you hear me? Isn’t it dangerous to give someone who knows nothing about it to use a gun? I don’t know if I can trust myself around this thing. I might accidentally shot you or even myself.”

“I’m not that good either— no, rather than good, I can barely use this thing either. But here’s the thing, I’m really desperate to survive. I just decided to put blind faith into my instinct rather than succumb to my fear. I mean, you gotta do everything you can do to survive, right?” Taemin looks even more doubtful. “Either the gun or you look for something else. Maybe a bat or a crowbar if you brave enough to get that close to them.”

Taemin shakes his head. “No, thank you, I’m good with your gun. I’ll take care of this carefully.”

“Good. Now look, I’m sure you are aware that we’re nothing more but strangers. So I want you to remember that I have no obligation to keep you safe. My only job here is to take you to a shelter. Nothing more.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Taemin takes the holster and then he puts in on his body.

“Also, you don’t need to have my back as well. Even though we’re together, we have no responsibility towards each other. We’re on our own. If you ever see me fall behind, just run. Keep going.” He watches how Taemin nods slowly from the corner of his eyes. Jonghyun clears his throat. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. I just think it’s for the best.”

“I know. I’m grateful anyway." The room falls silent for a good minute, only then filled by the sound of Jonghyun gathering all of the tools he acquired from the room he just went through. "Oh, that reminds me. When you were in that room earlier, I look around the kitchen and they don't seem to have anything worthy enough for us to take. How much food do you have left?”

“If it’s only for me then it could last for a while.”

“Should we look at the next house?”

“I think we better go to the groceries store. Let’s try our luck there.”

They rode off once again to find a supermarket. They stop at the first store they saw. Many stuff cluttered on the floor. Thankfully, Jonghyun can spot the food aisle from the entrance and it's not entirely empty. He mouthed to Taemin to take his gun out. The gun looks really weird on him, not sure if it's because the way he held it or he just simply looks like a good person that wasn't supposed to be anywhere around something that looks violent. Jonghyun told him to be as quiet as possible by his hand gesture. Taemin nods awkwardly.

They look around first to see if there’s any sign of zombies laying around. Then they went to the canned food aisle. Jonghyun quickly scanned the rack. He mouthed again to Taemin and point at every can he wants to take. While Taemin busy, Jonghyun eyes wander across the aisle.  _Tools. That’s it. We might need that._

“I’m just gonna go over there for a bit. Only grab what’s necessary. We need to travel light. Remember, don’t take anything that has a really strong smell.” Taemin only nods at him again. While Jonghyun wishes he could be more verbal every time he says something to him, but right now using less verbal communication is probably the best thing they could do now. “Stay alert and stay as quiet as you can. You can never know where they might show up.”

Jonghyun carefully takes his step across the aisle. It's really strange to think this place used to be packed with people doing their daily groceries. Or people who only came by to buy some snacks to accompany them during their late night movie marathon. Or just the people who came here every day to work, despite their hatred towards their job. At normal day, Jonghyun could've just stroll his way down the aisle. But as he reaches towards the end, he slowly lurks around the hall. The people who used to work here, people who came here to buy some stuff, are now just this mindless, rotten creature. Jonghyun swiftly makes his way towards the aisle in front of him, try not to think much about what he just saw. Right now, this is his reality.  _I really should've accepted this fact sooner._

They take anything they could take in silence. As Taemin gathering the food he collects on the floor, suddenly he heard the sounds of tires screeching from the parking lot.

“Jonghyun! The car!”

Jonghyun bolted out, dropping every stuff he held and ran away outside as fast as he could. When he finally reaches outside, all he could see is his car slowly disappearing into the distance. Taemin whined desperately while running his hand through his hair.

“Now what are we going to do?”

“We’ll go on foot,” Jonghyun answer sharply.

Taemin blinks out for a few seconds before he snickered at him. “Are you kidding me? I almost died hours ago. There’s no question I’m in no shape to outrun those zombies. Should we try using the bicycle? I think I saw some inside.”

“As you just said, you’re in no shape to outrun them, and so do I. Using bicycle meaning we’ll burn up our calories twice as much. We’ll lose our energy quicker. We never know too where we might need to go. If we had to go to a place where there’s no smooth terrain, we’re screwed. I’m not taking any chances. We’ll go on foot. Maybe if we’re lucky, we might find an abandoned car somewhere.”

Jonghyun went back towards the store, leaving a flustered Taemin.

“But—“

“You are welcome if you want to go using the bicycle if you really want to. I still prefer to go on my own anyway.”

Taemin snorts as he rests both of his hands on his waist. "You're not serious. Right?"

Jonghyun stopped walking only to stare Taemin sharply over his shoulder. Taemin slumped his hands down with his mouth gaped open. They both stare at each other for a while.

"What are you waiting for? Am I not clear enough? Do I need to spell it out for you?"

"Alright, alright. Geez, will you calm down? It was just a suggestion. No need to be so angry about it."

"No, I'm not angry. But I'm gonna say this once; this is how I handle my trip. If you're not pleased with it, you can take as many supplies as you need right now, and then you can go out there on your own."

Taemin sighed, but still, he drags his feet to follow Jonghyun back inside the store. But then his eyes immediately catch something that makes him and Jonghyun stop on their track. One by one, the zombies came out of the store, growling as they drag their decaying body. They're not really large in number, but it's enough to make Taemin almost losing the strength of his entire being. One of his shaky hand tried to reach the gun strap on his torso but then Jonghyun pulls his hand down right away.

"If you can't do it now, it's fine. But next time you gotta handle them on your own." 

Jonghyun quietly pushes Taemin to stand directly behind him with not that much of an effort. He can hear how he try to control his unsteady breath while mumbling something he cannot quite catch. Jonghyun takes one big, deep breath to then lift his arms, pointing his gun towards his targets.

 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> My first multi-chapter fic and I already pick the heavy kind of stuff. It's like I'm begging for death to come and get me right away lmao
> 
> Glad I can finally put this out after being kept away for so long in my draft dungeon... I'm still trying to get back into my writer mode after I kind of abandoned it for a couple of years...? Yeah, I used to write too for another fandom. You thought my English is bad now? Oh boy, y'all need to see the mess I created a few years ago lol (or maybe don't because that shit is kind of embarrassing)
> 
> But after posting some 2hyun fics, now I really want to go back to that fandom and just pick it up where I left off...... Welp, another stuff to think about later. Speaking of 2hyun, I decided to not to do day 3, 5 and 7, should I post day 4 and 6? But if I should, I'm gonna post them at least by tomorrow because right now I just arrived at home from college and I have a few assignments blah blah blah... you know the drill
> 
> So, what did you guys think? I'm kind of testing the water right now, to see if this fic can really go on or not.  
> I wish I have the confidence like everyone else to just let it out as it is and didn't write the 'I'll be back later to fix some stuff' at the end notes lol 
> 
> (Oh yeah my friend did help me a bit, but I don't think I understand her many advices that well..... so yeah he he he)
> 
> Anyway, thank you for stopping by :)


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